Dentists' knowledge on patient rights

Abstract

Objective: One of the conditions to have a well-qualified life is to be healthy and receive appropriate medical care during illness. Individuals who receive health care have the right to know what their problem is and which procedures and interventions they will undergo. At that point, we meet the "patient rights" concept. Both patients' and doctors' awareness of patient rights is fundamental for medical care quality. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of dentists on patient rights. Material and Methods: Data were collected with a questionnaire on patient rights. The questionnaire was distributed to 269 dentists who were selected randomly and were voluntary to participate. Data were analyzed with SPSS 11.0 package program. Results: Ninety-six participants were male and 36.8% of the dentists were working at dental faculties. A hundred and sixteen dentists had received education on patient rights but only 25 dentists claimed to have sufficient knowledge about patient rights. It was striking that the dentists had negavite approach relatively towards the patient rights to request consultation from another physician and to have a caregiver and to review and copy medical records. The participants were asked in which conditions oral/written informed consent should be taken and relatively higher participants stated that they did not obtain informed consent for "prosthetic treatment", "laboratory and radiological investigations", "drug treatment" and "endodontic treatment" Conclusion: Especially recent years, sanctions for malpractice cases in new Turkish Penal Code have been discussed. The doctors have sufficient knowledge about patient rights within the context of care duty. So that, it is necessary to convey current information about patient rights especially in education at the faculty and on-the-job training.